Mini Album Tutorial: "Favorite 2010 Moments"

Hello and welcome to my Mini Album Tutorial, this will be a monthly segment that I’ll be posting every third Wednesday, sign up at our Scrappy Community http://thescrappytree.ning.com/group/dianasmonthlyminialbumtutorial so you can post photos of your creations and to get a head start on the supply list.

Lets start. The theme of the album is Favorite 2010 Moments, I selected photos from events I enjoyed more during this past year and separated them by month.



Today’s mini is made using a 9” X 7” 3 Ring Binder, to dress it up I made a cover using Canvas Fabric

Album Cover
Cut your fabric to measure 28” X 11”.
If you are using a different size of binder open it up as shown in the picture, measure 1” on the top and 1” on the bottom, for the sides measure the right side of the binder starting from the end of the binder clip, deduct ½” so your fold wont be to close to the binder clip, this is your final measurement, make sure your binder is open when you cut the left side this is to have both folds in an equal size.
If you are new at sewing like me, I recommend that you mark the binders shape on the fabric so you’ll know exactly where to stitch.

Stitch a ½” fold on both side edges, this will be the only stitching that will show on your cover.
Now you are going to sew the sides of your cover, reverse the folds and sew each of the 4 edges.

To avoid making the cover too bulky cut a diagonal piece of fabric on each edge, make sure you do not cut to close to the folded part.

Reverse your Cover and put it on the binder to make sure it fits.

And now it is time to make the cover pretty, I picked a simple embroidery using a Bazzill Basics Border Template, layered paper and stickers from Sassafrass Lass Indie Girl collection, added some doilies, ribbon and a cute Donna Downey Bird shape.

Don’t be afraid to embellish, add trinkets like this metal Life pin and the Maya Road Crystal Pins. Using different fonts for the title adds a nice and fun touch to the cover.

Lets move on to the inside of the album, I used craft cardstock. Cut thirteen 7.5” X 5” pieces, punch the holes in the measurement shown here. To give reinforcement I put a piece of Pink Paislee’s Artisan Tape on the sides where the holes are punched, another way to reinforce it is adding an extra piece of pattern paper. Have your Distress tool on hand, you’ll be using it a lot, start by distressing the sides of your 13 pages.

For the decoration of the Right side page cut one 5” X 4” and two 5” X 2.5” in different matching patterns (top row), distress the edges with your tool and then to add an extra distressing look fold the edges towards you, just little folds (bottom row), you will do this with all the paper pieces. You’ll need 12 sets of these, and an additional 12 sets for your Left pages of one 5” X 4” and one 2” X 2.5”

Right Pages,
This is where your photos will got. Before adding the paper I sprayed Glimmer Mist on each of the pages.
Once you have all your pieces it is time to layer them on your pages, start with one of the 5” X 2.5” then add on top the 5” X 4”, before you add the second 5” X 2.5” stick some folded lace, trim or ribbon to the back, and to be able to tuck more embellishments do not add glue to that end side of the paper. To add more texture I put an extra piece of the cute borders that come with the Sassafrass paper, another option is to use border punch pieces.

Left Pages,
This is where your journaling will go, I used Manila tags but of course you can make your own tags using cardstock paper, the edges are distressed and inked using chalk ink, I used a stamp I have with journaling lines, if you do not have a similar stamp just use a ruler and a marker, trying to make the lines look imperfect, just for fun I stamped an extra image on ea tag, the sheer month titles are from Maya Road.
Time to layer, start adding your 5” X 4”, before you stick the tag, add a piece of ribbon and the 2” X 2.5” behind it.

Here are my March and October pages, they still need the journaling.

And here is a close up of how I tucked some flowers under the piece of paper and added some banners to embellish.

The Album is Complete

I hope you liked this tutorial, and will be able to make your own using this theme or any other theme you like. I would love to see what you make, so make sure you upload photos to our Community

Next months Theme: Tips on how to make a Quick Mini Album, see you then.

=Diana